Fly like a Raven
by Darkdhaliax
Summary: The men of easy company comes across a badly wounded young swedish medic on D-day. She may be quite the beauty but behind the looks she hides a complicated past and reasons to fight for both the Allied and the German forces. I suck at summaries xD
1. Chapter 1 Fly No More

The room was dark and not too inviting. Drops of water fell from the roof and landed on the damped and blood stained madras Raven was laying on. Her eyes were shut tightly and her breathing was heavy as her chest heaved up and down at an irregular pace. She clutched her right shoulder with her left hand trying to stop the blood flow but as proof of her failure she felt rivers of blood seep through her dirty fingers. Her face was pale from the blood loss in both her shoulder and left leg. As she lay on the madras she pondered if this was the end for her, if she would truly die locked up in the attic at a nearly abandoned camp for the German forces. She bit her lip knowing that it was most likely her fate to die within enemy territory.

In an attempt to move to a more comfortable position pain shot through her leg and shoulder like a white blade that cut through her rough skin. She gasped for air as she held in her scream and silently let the tears freely stream from her hazel brown eyes and down her, at the moment, messed up face. She had not been in the attic for long, but at least long enough to know that the Germans in the house were long gone knowing full well that in her condition she was not going anywhere.  
Raven blinked a few times before attempting to scan her prison. The door a few feet away from the bed to her left was mockingly wide open, as if telling her that she would never be able to escape in her current state.

Her vision was once again about to blur when the sound of a roaring battle outside reached her ears followed by a door slamming open downstairs and several footsteps that entered the house. Oh how she at the moment longed to scream out to whoever it was that had come, how she longed to escape from her prison since just a few hours back. But she did not dare raise her voice out of fear of it being yet another group of Germans coming to laugh at her pitiful state. She would not give them the satisfaction of hearing her scream once more, one too many times already had she given them the pleasure of hearing her cracking voice as they beat her to the bloody pulp she now was. Raven's eyes darkened slightly at the thought of the horrid things she'd been put through, but as footsteps begun reaching her end of the house she immediately turned to face the door.

Moments later the once empty doorframe was now occupied by two men in English military suits. Both men only stared at the wounded woman before them before a third one joined them.  
"Get yer asses movin Joe, Malarkey, we ain't got all day." The man addressed as Joe only slightly nodded his head towards Raven and the newly arrived soldier followed his gaze.

"Holy shit." He said as he pushed past the two men and advanced towards Raven's now cowering figure. She now knew these men weren't Germans, but they still gave of a slightly intimidating aura. After all, they were soldiers. Upon reaching the bedside the man kneeled down next to Raven and quickly scanned over her wounds. Raven studied the man equally and when his eyes met hers she couldn't help but notice that the emotion reflected in his eyes weren't all that clear. He showed at that moment such a wide range of emotions at the same time that she begun to question if he really was a man and not a woman, after all, men were known to usually only have the emotional width of a teaspoon.

"Looks like they got ya pretty bad huh?" He stated after a few minutes of silently gazing into her eyes. Raven nodded slightly, silently telling the three men that she did indeed understand what they were saying. It looked as if the man was about to speak once more when a load roar from outside brought them back to a nice thing called reality.

"Bill we ought to take her with us and get to the assembling point as fast as we can." Joe said as he walked up to the bedside and just as Bill had done he looked over her wounds.

"Although I doubt she can walk by herself." Raven glanced down at her leg and then back up at her shoulder, both were pounding like crazy and she knew that even the slightest movement would cause immense pain to once again surge through her already numbing body.

"I got her" Bill announced as he brought his arms under the hollow of her knees and behind her back before hoisting her up into his arms. This times movements were to sudden and too big for Raven to be able to hold back her scream and she full on let out a heartbreaking screech and the tears begun to once again flood her eyes which she had shut tightly.

"Just…keep fighting" Bill said sounding rather...Nervous? Apparently he was not used to dealing with an injured woman. God knows if he'd done anything differently had it been a man in his arms, well first off he wouldn't be carrying a man the way he carried Raven at the moment. The three men hurried out of the house and went in the opposite direction of where the fighting had occurred, all the while Raven clutched tightly to Bill's uniform and bit her lip so hard it began bleeding in a matter of seconds. If she didn't receive medical treatment soon she'd die from blood loss, and she knew that better than anyone in their little company.

Upon reaching a specific tree another man joined their company and the four begun to move once again. The new man gave Raven some pretty strange looks, probably wondering where his fellow soldier friends had found a girl in this full on battle area. But he shrugged it off none the less and continued on with the slow run.

They'd run for about 20 minutes when Joe signalled for them all to take cover behind some bushes. Raven could at that very moment feel an unusually large wave of pain surge through her but she bravely held in the scream that threatened to give away their position to possible German troops. For several minutes everything was quiet and the only thing Raven could hear was the steady breathing of Bill who held her as close as he could, probably trying to keep her from being cold from loosing so much blood.

Then suddenly Joe called out."Flash" which was returned by several unidentified male voices that said."Thunder" and as if on cue the group in the bushed revealed themselves and went up on a train railway. On the railway there were several other soldiers in uniforms all who were mighty glad to see some friendly faces in the dark night. But as their eyes fell upon Raven they all fell silent and quietly studied her.

"Who is this?" A particularly tall and respectable looking man asked as he nodded his head in Raven's direction.

"This sir is a girl we found not too far from here. She's pretty badly wounded sir so we brought her along, although I don't think she going to last much longer." The man that had been addressed as Malarkey earlier on said as he saluted the higher ranked man. The man in question nodded his head and allowed his gaze to catch Raven's as he too for a brief moment was captured in her eyes, just like Bill unknowingly had been earlier.

"Let's move on then, Toye, take over for Guarnere. Guarnere you and Hall take the front." With that Raven was carefully handed over to the man she'd come to know as Joe, or now Toye and bill went up to the front mumbling something about not knowing who the hell Hall was.

They had not been walking for very long from what Raven could tell before they stopped once more, one of the men, the one who seemed to be in charge, signalled for the others to hide and wait for his signal before attacking the approaching enemy. For him to be able to move better Toye placed Raven gently against a tree. He made sure she wouldn't fall over or be in the line of sight of the enemy before he hurried of to his position, patiently awaiting orders. In her own solitude Raven allowed her head to rock back and forth as she tried to focus her blurry vision. Her wounds ached, but she still thought that since it was only mere flesh wounds and nothing too deep she shouldn't't be affected this much by it. But then again she had lost a lot of blood and had very little to eat let alone drink for the past few days so her health was not exactly on top before she got shot.

Speaking of being shot, the sound of several bullets snapped Raven out of her so called drunken state and she whirled her head in the direction of the sound. There were men screaming in agony as the bullets hit their limbs and their bodies fell to the ground with a dull thud. The screaming of men and horses and roars of the guns continued for minutes before it all finally stopped. Everything was suddenly quiet except for a few yells further down the road. Raven savoured the moment, peace was a rare thing in war, and quietness was as well. But all too soon a man with the English army uniform came and picked her up.

"I'm Lipton; Toye needed a break so I'll take over for him." He answered her silent question before picking her up off the ground. Once again the movement caused a wave of pain to surge through her body but this time Rave merely coughed instead of screaming, but she coughed quite violently which caught Lipton's attention.

"Hang in just a little bit longer; I think we're almost there." At this Raven couldn't help but smile a little. _Great, he thinks we're almost there_. She thought as she forced herself to refrain from laughing mockingly, she didn't know how much longer she could hold on, a day at most.

The rest of the walk went by rather okay, except for the fact that when they neared the camp, Raven's coughing got worse and she fell in and out of consciousness repeatedly. John Hall, who was the soldier carrying her at the moment, began running and the constant up and down movement it caused made Raven's insides turn, figuratively speaking, and so she started coughing violently and her eyes begun to flicker from one side to another. Finally the blood loss had gotten to her completely and she could feel small drops of sweat make their way down her back and forehead, the end was near and she knew it, unless she received medical attention soon.

"Medic! Medic! " Hall hollered as soon as he set foot inside the camp, turning many heads as he did so. Many men were curious as to why an Able-company man just came running in with a foreign women. But no doubt many of them agreed that despite being covered in blood she appeared to be quite the beauty, at least her long seemingly silky and jet black hair looked promising. None of these thoughts occupied Hall's mind though as he desperately turned back and forth trying to find a fellow soldier with the familiar Red Cross attached to his arm. To his great fortune though two men with those very crosses came running towards him, both bringing up bandages and small morphine shots in the process.

"What happened?" One of the medics asked as he searched Raven's now unconscious body for signs of the injuries.

"I don't know sir. Four of our men found her like this in a house far from here. She appears to be wounded but until just recently she was doing well. Then she started couching and-"

"Keep it short and simple private. Follow me." One of the medics ordered as he interrupted Hall's rant and tugged at his sleeve urging him to follow. Hall did as he was told and spoke while running.

"Sir, she's got one shot wound right shoulder, one shot wound left leg and is coughing sir." The medic nodded his head in return and threw the door to the nearest aid station open. While inside Raven's was quickly taken from Hall's arms and said soldier was pushed outside again by rushing nurses and doctors who all tried to get to Raven to save her life. Private Hall could do nothing but obediently get out of their way and leave the aid station.

But as he did he spotted Lieutenant Winters, the man who'd led the company of lost soldiers himself included to the assembling point, and eagerly followed him once more. Maybe he'd be able to follow on the Easy-company men's mission and help out some. He felt a deep need to do something to get Raven's shaking and bloody face out of his mind, if he stayed still for too long her face was all that occupied his mind and he found himself wondering how anyone could be so heartless as to leave a innocent woman to die such a horrid death. No, he needed to find Lieutenant Winters and he needed to go on their mission with them, it was not something he wanted, he just simply needed it to keep his sanity.

He could not lose his sanity this close to the start of the war, he had to help more people and do more good.

Woooah, this is the end of chapter 1, I'm new here on so I'm not too sure about lots of things. As far at the story goes if you notice any wrongs and problems with my story I'd be happy if you could tell me. I'm not too good with the whole history part but I'll do my best to make sure the story sounds good and remains intresting ^^


	2. Chapter 2 Just like a Raven

Slowly her eyelids begun to flicker and her vision steadily became clearer and clearer. Raven shakily lifted her left arm to hold her throbbing shoulder and carefully studied her surroundings. She was in an aid station no doubt about it.

The smell of blood and death hung heavily in the air and if she looked around her eyes fell upon several wounded and some even dying soldiers. There were no screams, they'd probably all been drugged with morphine and were too out of it to feel anything, but looking at their wounds Raven could tell that some didn't't have much further to go.

Ignoring her surroundings Raven's eyes fell upon her own figure. The pain in her shoulder and leg had gone down to a numb throbbing and both were covered in white bandages. She still wore her bloody clothes though and had it not been for the voice next to her she would have been engulfed in the nightmare memories from her time in the German camp.

"I see the bird is up." At the sound of another person's voice Raven's head snapped in the direction it came from. To her left there was a blonde man lying on his belly. He had bandages covering his lower body half and his lips were curved into a rough smile. Raven studied the man confusingly.

"Bird?" she asked as she found her nickname to be rather fitting but still amusing. The man to her left laughed slightly.

"Yeah, that's the name the boys gave you. They think your hair resembles the colour of a Raven's feathers." At this Raven laughed too, it was quite funny how no one knew her name but still had compared her to the very bird she was named after. But then again her mother also thought her hair resembled the colour of the Raven's feathers, hence why she got her name.

"But what's your real name?" The man suddenly asked and Raven couldn't help but notice that he seemed quite eager to talk to her, but as she glanced back at his wound she figured it probably was because talking to someone made him forget about the pain. So with a smile she said.

"Raven, and yours?"

"You can call me Popeye, but no kidding, your name is actually Raven? Hah, imagine that, I guess the boys were closer to knowing your name than they thought"

"I guess so." The last sentence was followed by silence; neither Popeye nor Raven knew how to continue the conversation. They couldn't very well talk about the weather since neither of them had been outside for a while. But to their relief a medic approached Raven's bed which gave her an opportunity to turn her attention elsewhere.

"How are you feeling?" The medic asked as he reached her, he kneeled down by her leg and started unwrapping the bandages to check on the wound.

"Good." Was Raven's simple reply. The medic merely nodded his head.

"Hey Roe, you think I will be sent home for this." Popeye asked from his bed and motioned his head towards his bandages. The medic called Roe momentarily lifted his gaze from Raven's leg to glance at Popeye, then he went back to treating Raven's injury.

"Don't know Popeye, I was not the one who treated that wound, so I don't know how bad it is."

"Hmm, imagine that. Eugene Roe don't know if it's bad or not." Popeye mockingly said just before another man stepped inside the aid station. His eyes scanned the room until they landed on Raven in which moment he immediately advanced towards her. When he got closer Raven recognized him as the man who'd been in charge of the group she'd arrived with.

"You're the one from before." She said as she studied his appearance more thoroughly now that she could actually see what he looked like. Flaming neatly cut red hair covered his head and he had eyes that shimmered between steel grey and ice blue depending on the light; his overall face features were sharp. He was tall and lean and looked like a strong man, and there was something about him Raven noted, that made him look rather respectable and important.

"Yes I am. Now if you don't mind I'd like to ask you some questions." He said but Raven was not listening.

"Where are the others?" She asked, afraid of the answer. She didn't know how long she'd been out but fact was that the people who'd helped her were soldiers and soldier went into combat and in combat you died. No doubt had they all been sent out into combat while she was out, now she needed to know they were ok.

"They're scattered around camp. But they're fine." The man reassured Raven, probably sensing the distress in her voice.

"All of them? Everyone who came here when I did, they're all safe?" At this the man fell silent and Raven knew there had been at least one who'd been lost during her absence.

"We lost one man. John Hall, the one who carried you into camp the day we arrived." He spoke softly, silently, as if the words he spoke would kill another man if spoken too harshly.

Raven fell silent; her eyes had been drained of what little life Popeye had been able to fill them with. Before her inner vision dead bodies and despair flashed while she alone could do nothing but stand by and watch. She'd seen death one too many times and it had scarred her for life. She'd grown to feel like she had to be everywhere all at once; she'd started to feel like if only she had been there then maybe a soldier's life could have been saved. This feeling did more harm than good, she became so focused on making things right that once she made a mistake she froze, her body became unwilling to move and she felt like laying down to die herself.

"Ma'am? Ma'am!" Raven was roughly pulled out of her own thoughts as the man with red hair bent down and grabbed her shoulders, clearly sensing that she'd momentarily slipped away from the present.

"You ok?" He asked once he noticed he'd gotten her attention. Raven only nodded.

"You can call me Raven."

"Ok, then you can call me Dick, or Winters." He replied before sitting down on a nearby chair, clearly realizing that to get anything out of Raven he had to take it slow.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions now Raven?" He asked as he lightly touched the subject that would eventually lead to more difficult questions. Raven nodded in response and so Dick begun his questioning.

"Why were you in that nearly abandoned German camp?"

"I'd been captured." At the first sentence images begun to flash before her inner vision again but Raven roughly pushed them aside and continued.

"I'd been foolish enough to wander around on the street in broad daylight. But I didn't think there'd be anyone there, the town looked so abandoned from a far and I had not eaten in days." Now tears had begun to fill her eyes as Raven found herself unable to keep her emotions bottled up any longer. But none the less she continued.

"They did so many horrible things. The pain was unbearable at first but after some time you grow numb to it, it's like you can't feel it anymore, you can't feel anything, nor pain nor sorrow. They believed I held information from the allied troops, they thought I could give them precious information that would help them win the war. But I didn't say anything, not that I knew anything of value to them, but I knew that the moment I became useless to them I would be killed. For two weeks I endured their torture, two weeks with nothing but a mere sip of water and moulded bread every second day. Then the invasion started, you guys came and the Germans knew that their position in that town was weak. But it was not an important position so they abandoned it, but they couldn't bring me with them to headquarters, I was too much baggage. So they shot me, twice, just to make sure I wouldn't go anywhere, and then they left two small groups to guard the city and me."

When she finished her tears had stained her cheeks and clothes. Her eyes were red and swollen when she looked at Dick who's eyes showed slight pity for the girl who'd gotten caught up in a war that he thought was not hers to fight.

"How'd you end up in France?" He continued, not wanting to endure the heavy silence that had filled the air any longer. Raven swallowed hard before gazing up at the roof, as if searching it for the answers she needed.

"I followed my brothers." She finally said and looked Dick straight in the eyes.

" They were Swedish soldiers who'd come to secretly join the allied forces and help win this war. But one year ago my mother received four telegrams in one day. All of them stating that my brothers were killed by the SS. It was at that time I decided to come here, to be a field nurse or surgeon, whatever they were in need of. I didn't have much money and I couldn't ask my mother for it. She'd never approve of sending me off to war, not after losing four sons in it. But I had to be here, for my brothers. So I scrambled up what money I could find and took the first train out of the country. Now one thing led to another and before I knew it I ended up here. I have been living on my own for the past year trying to figure out a way to get into the army, but then I was captured and voila, here I am."

Raven forced a smile as she finished, she didn't care that she'd just spilled her whole life story to a stranger, he asked so if he didn't like what he heard that's his problem.

"I see." Dick said as he rose up from the chair. "I will go and talk to Major Strayer then. By the way, you said you wanted to be a field surgeon correct?"

"Yes sir"

"If what you say is true and if you're educated then I think that can be arranged. "Dick then gave a quick nod towards Eugene and Popeye who both returned it with a "sir" and then he went to leave the aid station. But Raven stopped him.

"Sir, if possible I'd like to work as a field surgeon in your company." This caused Dick to turn around slightly and give Raven a nod too.

"We will see " He said and Raven watched his back disappear behind the doors before she turned to look at Eugene who'd just finished re-bandaging her shoulder; he'd finished her leg long ago.

"You a real surgeon lady?" Eugene suddenly asked her as he glanced up at her from cleaning his bloody hands.

"Top of the class." She answered with a smile which Eugene was close to returning had it not been for the three loud mouths who just burst through the door to the aid station.

"Popeye!" The one at the front exclaimed happily as he took the chair Dick had used and moved it over to stand beside Popeye's bed.

"You feeling better buddy?" The second man asked and Raven could have sworn she recognized all three of them from somewhere. She squinted her eyes as she tried her best to place where she'd seen them before but found it to be extremely hard. Only when the third person spoke did she recognize the voice and thus could put names on each and every one of their faces.

"You made it back then lucky bastard."

"Bill" Raven whispered which caused the three newly arrived to turn around and look at whoever it was that had spoken. When their eyes fell upon Raven their faces lit up.

"Hey, it's the chick from that German camp." Bill exclaimed as he moved from Popeye's bed to stand next to Raven's bedside.

"Toye, Malarkey, you seeing this? She survived after all." Both Toye and Malarkey grinned like fools as they too moved from Popeye's bedside to approach Raven. They didn't get very far though before Roe stepped between them.

"She ain't gonna live long though unless you give her time to rest. Same goes for Popeye." The three soldiers looked from Roe to Popeye and then to Raven and back again before grumbling and solemnly turning towards the exit. But just as he was about to walk through the door Toye remembered something.

"Hey birdie, what's your name?" He hollered. Raven giggled slightly, not really understanding what she thought was so funny with that question but she answered it none the less.

"Raven." And with that she sunk down on her bed and closed her eyes, ready to let herself be engulfed by the nightmares that haunted her every dream but for the first time feeling like she could handle it, no matter how awful they were, she still had reality to come back to. And this time reality didn't seem so bad.


End file.
